"Very Proud To Have Been A Friend Of His": Rahul Gandhi Remembers Sitaram Yechury

Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, paid an emotional tribute to the late Sitaram Yechury, former CPI(M) General Secretary, during a condolence meeting at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi. Reflecting on their political journey, Rahul Gandhi described Yechury as a friend and a rare figure in politics who exemplified integrity, flexibility, and understanding.

In his speech, Rahul recounted Yechury’s ability to bridge ideological divides, particularly between Congress and other parties in the INDIA alliance. He lauded Yechury for his calm demeanour, devoid of common traits like anger and arrogance, noting that his unwavering commitment to India’s interests always guided his actions.

Gandhi shared personal memories, recalling Yechury’s close friendship with his mother, Sonia Gandhi, and how he encouraged Yechury to visit the hospital during a recent meeting. Reflecting on Yechury’s loss, Rahul mentioned the difficult times following the death of Yechury’s son, and his final moments writing to Yechury’s wife after his passing.

Rahul concluded by honouring Yechury’s uncompromised dedication to the nation, saying, “I am very proud to have been a friend of his.”

Here is the full text of Rahul Gandhi’s speech:

“Good evening! For me, Sitaram Yechury was a friend, who operated in the political system. When people look at politics from outside, it’s not easy to see the dynamics that take place inside the political system. It’s an unforgiving place, harsh place, uncomfortable place and it brings out mostly the worst in people. It’s rare that you see that politics brings out the best in a person. And I saw Mr. Yechury from the first day I started in my political journey, and I observed him quite carefully and what I found, was a person, who was flexible, who listened, who even though… he was on the opposite spectrum ideologically, had the ability to understand, where we were coming from and he also allowed us to understand, where he was coming from. He was a bridge in a sense between certainly, the Congress party and other parties in the INDIA gathbandhan.

There are people, who are visible and they are upfront, you see them and then there is the glue that is not visible, that is hidden, that is actually what holds the structure together and I would say, Mr. Yechury was such a figure, who in the INDIA gathbandhan certainly and the last UPA gathbandhan, held the architecture together. He held the architecture together, because he was flexible, because he listened and he didn’t have the common traits that a lot of politicians have- anger, aggression, arrogance, these things were missing and this is rare in our work, so, he was a friend.

I dealt with him a number of times and I always noticed, how the stress was countered with the Cigarette and this was always there and I used to tell him- Yechury Ji, what is this? Why don’t you get rid of this? And that I think, is the only habit that probably he was not able to get rid of. He was also very close to my mother and I would say, they were even better friends than I was with him.

Few days ago, he came to meet my mother and they were sitting there and I saw, Mr. Yechuri was coughing and I realised that both of them have the same attitude when it comes to hospitals, which is that neither of them wanted to go to a hospital under any circumstances. I knew, they were watching each other. So, immediately I caught Mr. Yechuri. I said- Yechuri Ji, you are going in the car, you are not going home, you are going to the hospital and I ensured, I told my office people that look, he has to go to the hospital and he was smiling, he was still trying to say- no, I am not going to go, but… and that was the last time, I saw my friend. I came to the hospital again with the view of seeing him, but, unfortunately, that never happened.

There were two moments, when I was thinking about Mr. Yechuri and I was… and I had no answer. One was, when his son passed away and I picked up the phone and I didn’t know what to say, I really just didn’t know what to say and I called him and then I was silent on the other side, because, what he was going through, probably the hardest moment of his life, but, then, I met him few days later and the same Mr. Yechuri tough, brave, Mr. Yachuri was back.

And then the other time, I didn’t know what to say was, when I was writing to his wife after he passed and I was trying to… you know, I had got a draft, we get drafts of letters and the draft just didn’t fit. Normally the draft fits and this draft just didn’t fit, I had to cancel out everything and so, I was thinking, what to I say to his wife, who is going through such a hard time.

The only thing, I could say is that he was a person, you could trust. He was a person that you were sure, hundred per cent sure that he wasn’t compromised in today’s situation, where there is pressure easy to get compromised, he was not compromised and whatever he did, he always did for the interest of our country.

Every single time, his starting point and may be my brothers in the left might not like it, but, his starting point was India and that was the point from which he began and of course, after that was his political ideology, his political conviction, but, whenever he would speak to me about the BJP and the RSS, he didn’t say- they are doing this and they are doing that, he said- look, this is a danger to the country, what they are doing to our institutions, what they are doing to our structure, what they are doing to our education system is going to destroy India and that’s how he lived his life. I am very proud to be have been a friend of his.

Thank You!”